Timber
by Im a half-blood
Summary: The 74th Hunger Games have begun and the competition is insane; from a cute murderous career to a passive aggressive volunteer from twelve, Rose Ashthorn isn't sure how she'll make it out without being killed. Despite all of this she made a promise to return home alive, a promise she is willing to do anything to keep. Even if that means killing the boy she is falling for.
1. Chapter 1

"Finish up with that wood and then hurry in. You need to start getting ready!" I could hear my father yell from the path leading up to our home as he arrives back from the lumber yard. I wipe the sweat from my brow as I watch my dad walk inside while I put another block of wood on the stump in front of me and try to clear my thoughts. I slam the axe down on the wood and it splits down the middle. I've been doing this to calm my nerves for as long as I can remember. My father used to do the same thing. I would watch him gathering the wood and splitting it for hours. The constant thump, thump, thump of it being hit would sooth me and make me forget my problems.

Eventually I finished up with my pile of wood and stacked them neatly outside when I decide that it's time for me to go in already. I quickly wash myself, getting the mud and sweat off me before changing into my nicest dress. I only ever use it once a year and long for the day when I won't ever wear it again. Luckily, this is my last year that I may be reaped so whatever happens after today, I'm never wearing this dress again. My name is only in that bowl as much as it needs to be, so I don't have as big of a chance as being called as some of the other kids in my district. I'm lucky that my family is doing well enough that we don't have to worry about putting my name in more than necessary.

My little brother Jack is only 10 so he isn't going to worry about any of this for another couple of years and luckily my older brother Ronan is 19 now so he is finished with the stress of getting reaped. So, it's just me, everyone is just worried about me.

I smooth out the cream-colored dress and brush through my curly red hair in hopes to tame it down some. Once I realize there's no way to get it to stay down any more than it already is I just pin back the front to make it look like I at least tried. My mother would put it in braids when I was younger, so it would look more presentable, but since she died I haven't figured out how to get it to look as good as it did when she did it so I just gave up on trying a couple years ago.

I walk out from my little room where I was getting ready and face my family. My two brothers and my Dad look up from whatever they are doing to see me. I can see my father looks pained. He gets that way sometimes because I look so much like my mother, but he gets especially upset on reaping days when I wear this stupid dress.

Silently we exit our house and walk along with the other families in our village to the center of town in front of the Hall of Justice. It is one of the most beautiful places in district seven and yet all I have of it is bad memories of kids getting carted off to their deaths. Well most of them, there is one that survived while I've been in this crowd in years past named Johanna Mason. She survived the hunger games just four years ago. I remember her being reaped even, she was so innocent looking then, but once she was in the arena she became truly terrifying.

Stop thinking about the arena. You won't even be going in. It will be some other poor kid. Not you.

I keep telling myself this as I walk over to the girl's side of the area, leaving my family with the others off to the sides. I walk up to the front where all the rest of the eighteen-year-old girls are at and wait silently, listening and observing everything around me. The girl next to me is clenching her fist and the one behind me is whispering to the girl next to her about how someone had to put their name in fifty times. It shouldn't comfort me, but it does in a way, because it makes my chances of getting drawn go down.

I wait there for about ten minutes and slowly can hear as the sounds dissipate as the escort for our district, Opal Wellway, approaches the microphone. She is tall and thin, her dark skin contrast from the bright orange color of the hair that is cut short and sleeked back neatly. Her lips and dress match the neon orange color of her hair, but her dress is much more elaborate than the somewhat simple look of her hair, for Capitol standards at least. Her dress is tight on her torso but when reaching her waist poofs out and forms little shapes resembling that of balloons continuing until it hits her knees. Her shoes contrasted from the outfit entirely as they were clear and seemed to be filled with some sort of lava looking goo. I missed most of the mandatory video just watching her flounce around. I only realized that I am when she turns to the crowd in front of her and sighs happily at the end of it.

"Now, the time has come for us to select one courageous young man and woman for the honor of representing District Seven in the 74th annual Hunger Games" Opal beams out to the crowd excitedly, "As usual, ladies first."

As soon as she says this she prances over to the large clear bowl filled with white papers. There are hundreds if not a thousand names in there, surely it won't be mine. Opal reaches her arm inside the bowl and grazes the top slips before diving her hand a bit deeper in and springing it back up with a single slip of white paper in it. She begins to walk back to the microphone and as soon as she reaches it she rips open the slip excitedly and glances at the name for a moment.

"Rose Ashthorn"

I hear the deafening silence that follows the name and look around me for someone else to move, anyone else. I must have heard her wrong, it couldn't be me who she called.

But it was. The stares of the girls around me were enough to know that I hadn't heard wrong. My name had been pulled out and I am going to be in the Hunger Games.

With that thought on my mind I put on a brave face and make my feet move toward the stage. From this moment forward everything I do matters, everything I do is part of how I survive. I try to look confident when climbing the steps up to Opal, but I can't tell if its working, because my insides feel like I am falling apart. Eventually I do make it there though with my head held high and stand facing the crowd of people in front of me. Their faces all begin to blur together, but I'm snapped out of it by the movement of Opal next to me.

She glides over to the boy's side and dramatically picks a slip from the very top of the pile of names in the bowl before flouncing back to the microphone and happily announcing the name of the next tribute.

"Griffin Fairfall"

I watch as a boy maybe fifteen years old approaches the stage. His black hair covers up some of the sad look on his face while he's slowly walking up the stairs. He stands next to Opal looking down at his shoes clearly avoiding seeing the mass of people in front of us.

"Here we are, our tributes from District Seven!" Opal looks expectedly out at the crowd before us beckoning them to applaud. A faint applause emerges from the people, mostly in relief that it hadn't been them.

Opal motions to me and Griffin to shake hands so we turn to each other and look at each other's face in silent understanding as we reach out to shake. One of us will be dead soon. It's not going to be me. I won't let it be me. I will win this thing.

We finish and turn back to the crowd for the last time.

"Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor."

Then we are quickly escorted off the stage by Opal and led through the Hall of Justice before we are separated into different rooms to say our goodbyes to our loved ones. I am led to a grey room filled with beautiful things. A velvet couch sits in the center of the room and a mahogany table is placed off to the side with a vase of red flowers tucked neatly inside of it. I pace the wood floors of the room until I hear the door open and I look up to see my father and brothers standing before me.

Jack runs to me first, wrapping his arms around my waist and letting warm tears stain my cream dress. I rub his back and look up into the eyes of Ronan who pries Jack off me.

"Listen," I kneel in front of Jack and grab his hand, "I promise you that I will do anything to come back. I won't be gone long."

He looks at me and nods his head still shedding tears at a rapid pace.

I look up at my older brother now and give him a tight hug. We have always been close. Jack doesn't remember mom because she died when he was so young, but Ronan and I, well we understand each other. We both remember the weeks leading up to her death and know how tough we both are. He more than anyone else knows that I can win this thing.

I softly hear Ronan whisper in my ear before we finish the hug, "Don't you dare break that promise"

I move back and look into his eyes one more time before nodding my head and eventually turning to my father.

My father has shed a few tears, but I can tell he's trying to be strong for everyone just as I am. He reaches out to me and pulls me into a hug. At this point I allow myself to let a single tear fall as I feel his scruffy black beard kiss my forehead and his large hands rubbing my thick strawberry locks.

"Don't lie to me. Do you really think you can do this?" He asks sadly.

I pull back to look at his face and give him a sad smile before nodding and replying, "If grandma could do it then so can I. How hard could it be?" I snicker behind my wet face.

He smirks for a second and nods before letting go of me and begins searching for something in his pants pocket. Once he finds what he's been searching for he sits with me on the small couch and hands the trinket to me.

It turns out to be a silver necklace with a simple chain and a small pendant of a honey locust leaf on it. It shined brightly and beautifully. I remember seeing my mother wear it when I was little. I always thought that it got buried with her.

I look up at my father as he undoes to the lock and begins to fasten it around my neck.

"This was your mother's necklace and before that it was my mothers. Your grandmother wore this when she won her Hunger Games. When she died she gave it to your mother and now I am giving it to you. I hoped to give it to you tonight as a gift and we would celebrate, but since you will win the games, I suppose that it should go with you now. Let it lead you to your victory as it has done before."

I grip the pendant and look with watery eyes to my father just as the peacekeeper opens the door and tells us that time is up. My family exits with one last look at me, a look of belief and longing. Longing for me to come back home to them.

The door closes behind them and it's quiet for a couple of minutes, so I use this time to compose myself. I dry my tears take deep breaths to return my body back to its calm and collected state that I seemingly had just an hour or so ago.

My time is up though as the Peacekeepers and Opal come to collect me and guide me to the train where some reporters stand waiting. Griffin visibly gulps as we approach, and I simply walk past with a smirk on my face giving off an illusion of confidence.

Once we are on the train however, my smirk fades away and Griffin along with myself follow Opal into what I presume is a dining car. Surprisingly it wasn't empty, there were two people sitting at the table waiting for us apparently. I recognized them as Johanna and Blight. Both victors from previous years and clearly now, our mentors.

Griffin and I spare a glance as one another before sitting down, both of us clearly intimidated.

"So let's skip all the unnecessary introductions and get to it," Johanna snaps, "Griffin I will be your mentor and Blight will be yours Rose."

I nod and glance at Blight before turning back to Johanna.

"Now, do you want to discuss your tactics in front of one another or should we separate now?" She says looking between the two of us.

I look to Griffin for a second and then turn back to Johanna, "Separately"

She smirks at me quickly and nods her head, "Okay, good" Blight then gets up from his seat and starts to walk to another car and I follow close behind him until he comes to a stop at a car at the end of the train. The windows are large here and you can see the trees surrounding us, it makes me wish I was back home already, but before I could dwell on that thought too much Blight motions for me to sit in the chair across from him.

"It was smart for you to separate yourself from your district partner." He says, "Sometimes tributes get too attached and it makes it more difficult later when one of you dies."

I look down in my lap for a second taking that in, "So what do I do now?"

"Well I need to know about you. Do you have any skills that would be useful in the arena?"

I pause thinking for a second, "I can use an axe really well, I can climb, I know some basic survival skills. My grandmother taught me how to tell if something is poisonous, so I've got that." I instinctively rub the pendant on my necklace as I say that.

"Good. That will take you far in the arena. Do you know how to use any other weapons?"

I shake my head.

"That's okay. I want you to find a couple and focus on those in training."

I nod trying to think of any weapons I might be good at.

"Now, I noticed that when you were called you seemed poised, so I want you to keep up with that. Being confident and beautiful will help you get sponsors in the Capitol."

I blush and nod my head once again.

We continue talking about strategy for a few more minutes before Opal pops her head in and announces that dinner is being served.

Blight and I walk with Opal to the dining car where Griffin and Johanna are already eating. Griffin seems to eat fast and happily and it's just now I notice how skinny he is. He must have been from the poorer area of the district. I was always lucky that my family had as much as we did. Grandma stayed in the victor's village and sent us food and money often up until she died then when my mother died a couple years later she left us with the rest of her money and we've made it by just fine since. We don't live in the nicest place, but we never starved. My father made sure of that.

I ate the food in front of me as Blight talked with Opal. I listened in to little bits of their conversation before Johanna turns and talks to me.

"What was your last name again?" she asks.

"Ashthorn"

"Why does that sound familiar?"

"My grandmother was a victor many years ago. She won the 15th Hunger Games" I reply looking down at my food.

"Oh my god, Sable Ashthorn was your grandmother?" She says loud enough that Blight turns his head to our conversation.

Blight looks at me with joy in his eyes, "Your grandmother was a wonderful lady, she lived two houses down from mine, I only knew her for a year or two before she passed."

I nod and give him a small smile.

Johanna turns the attention back to herself, "I never got the chance to meet her, but she was amazing. Did you ever watch her games?"

I shake my head, "My parents never allowed us to see it."

"Well she was wonderful. And that's saying something coming from me,"

It really is something, I think as my mind wanders to the gory arena of Johanna Mason. Jumping out from behind other tributes and decapitating them or getting into fights with others who ended up with an axe sticking out of their body before bleeding out. I shudder thinking of what might be coming for me before taking a sip of my water.

Eventually we end the diner and Griffin joins Opal to watch the recap of the reaping's today as I wander off to find my sleeping compartment. I find it soon enough and for the Last time change out of this awful dress determined to burn it the second I get back home, assuming I make it back. I change into silky pajamas provided for me and lay on the little bed determined to get some sleep.

My thoughts are moving a mile a minute and I can't seem to clear my mind. So, I begin to instead think of home. I think of the trees surrounding my house and the little cabin that my family called home. The little closet of a room that I called my own. My father coming back from work smelling of sweat and pine trees. My brothers sitting by the fire outside when the summer nights began. I smile softly thinking back to my mother and grandmother who would sit and read together as they each began to drift away. My grandmother teaching me and Ronan about the outdoors. My mother singing the songs were aren't allowed to sing anymore.

And then I hear it. And I can drift off to sleep.

Thump, Thump, Thump.

 **Okay cool. So I'm just wanting more decent Cato fics and I figured I might as well just start my own. If you have any good suggestions, then let me know please. Also if you have any thoughts on this so far then review and tell me how bad or good this was. Lastly I'm going to throw in a shameless plug of my Sky High fanfiction. If you like Sky High at all then you should read it. Thanks for reading. Cato will be in the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone, thanks for reading this and I would love it if you could review this after reading. Feedback is very helpful. Thank you.**

I woke up the next morning exhausted from the events of the day before, but nonetheless got out of bed and began the day. Well if you could call it that. Its was still dark in the early hours of the morning when Opal knocked on my door and told me to dress in the clothes provided and come to breakfast as we would be arriving in the capitol within the hour.

I quickly cleaned myself up before dressing in the simple black outfit on my dresser. Before leaving my room on the train I looked at myself in the mirror, remembering the promise I made to my family to return to them and put on the necklace my father gave to me.

With that, I took a deep calming breath before walking to the dining car. Blight and Johanna sat there eating some fruits I did not recognize and talking in hushed tones. When they noticed me come in they both stopped their conversation and focused their attention on me.

"Good morning Rose" Blight said cheerily as Johanna ate another chunk of the yellow, juicy substance on her plate.

"Morning" I replied, sitting on the opposite side of the table and loading my plate with food, taking a little bit of everything in front of me and stuffing it down. Then going back for seconds almost immediately.

Johanna raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

"Eating" I say pointedly before taking in another bite.

Blight snickers, "I think what Johanna is asking is why are you eating like this is your last meal"

I sip my juice and look between them expectantly as if they should already know, "Uh, I'm carb loading. If I can gain some more weight last minute before I enter the games I can easily last another two or three days without any extra food in the arena. I want to be prepared for the worst."

Johanna smirks and leans her chair back slightly, "Honey, you have no idea about the worst"

Before I could reply to her statement the door to the dining car opened to Griffin and Opal in an argumentative conversation.

"I'm just telling you that the next time you hear me come to wake you please actually wake up. I am appalled at your morning behavior- Oh hello everyone. Good morning. We should be arriving in the capitol in about fifteen minutes. Right on schedule." Opal says to the three of us sitting at the table. Opal's Capitolite fashion still puts me in awe, even in these early morning hours. She wears a long bright blue wig with curls coming down to her waist and a black suit covered in golden gems that seem to be placed in a maze pattern. Her shoes, although less dramatic than yesterday, hold her to be at least six inches higher than her normal height and are the same bright blue as her hair.

After staring at her for a moment I see that Griffin is sat next to me chewing on a biscuit covered in sticky red jam.

Johanna then begins to give us the schedule for the day, "Okay, so once we get off the train and into the training center were going to separate the two of you to each go with your styling teams. They will help you look up to standards with the capitol people. That will take a while, obviously. Then you will be dressed by your stylists and taken to your chariot. We will meet up there. You will ride through the tribute parade most likely dressed as trees and then we will head to our floor at the training center where you can rest up, because that child's play will be nothing compared to what's up next."

I see Griffin visibly tense next to me and clutch his fist underneath the table in anxiety. Some part of me wants to help him and make him feel better, then I remember that I can't get attached to him because only one of us can possibly go back home. In another world we might be able to actually say something to each other or maybe even be friends, but not here, not now. I am cruelly reminded of that fact as we feel the train coming to a winding stop.

Opal is the first to get up and we all follow briskly behind her. She leads us around until we reach wherever we are that we need to leave each other. Johanna takes off with griffin and Blight winds his arm through mine as we make our way to my styling team. Once we make it to the florescent room Blight gives me a slight smile and a good luck before leaving me alone.

After a few seconds three colorful people walk into the room. They introduce themselves as Misty, Julius, and Diamond. Each of them wearing similar black latex body suits with the exception of different colored glowing lining and zippers in yellow, purple, and white respectively. They undress me and wash me roughly in various soaps and lotions, loudly giggling and gossiping throughout the entire process. For the most part it wasn't too terrible except for the painful waxing. They even managed to somewhat tame my wild strawberry curls into less of a mane and more of a waterfall.

I listened as they clipped my nails, they talked about my competition. Mainly a girl from district 12 named Katniss Everdeen who apparently volunteered. Huh, maybe I should have actually watched the reapings.

"Oh she is most definitely going to win or at least make it to the final five." Julius shares with the group.

"Ugh, as if. She's still from twelve where nobody ever wins, besides that boy from two clearly is the leader of this games and will probably make it further than everyone else." Diamond quickly retorts.

Misty sighs, "I don't know I think four could make it this year."

"Girl you always root for four cause you're still crushing on Finnick Odair"

"Shut up Julius. It's not like you're any better"

"Honey with as fine as Finnick Odair is I could root for four every damn year"

They continue their idle chatter as if I am not there until they are all finished and then leave me to wait for my stylist to appear. Which she does soon enough. She introduces herself as Venus and wears a long sleeved lavender mini dress and high holographic heels. Other than that though she looked fairly normal with her long black hair and pale skin. Her eyes were squinted in a way that made her look mischievous and almost innocent despite her job.

"Rose" she smiles, "I was very delighted to see you were my muse this time around. Usually I get stick thin, sad, unappealing tributes." She circles me, searching my body for any visible flaws. It takes all that it has in me not to bite my lip or furrow my brows as this woman degrades the dead tributes that have come before me. "But you, I can work with despite a couple of clear problems you are quite lovely."

"Thank you" I reply stiffly.

"As I am always correct, I assume that I have adjusted the sizing of your outfit to the appropriate size." She then hits a button on the wall and quietly mumbles into the speaker. After only a moment Misty returns into the room with a bag holding what I assume I will be wearing for the next couple of hours.

I'm not entirely sure how to react once I see it, even less so once I see it on me.

My parade costume consists of two large red-ish orange leaves covering my breast and a long high waisted skirt made of autumn leaves engulfing the bottom half of my body. My hair was teased and pulled back away from my face and left large in the back. The dark black color they applied on top of my eyes seems to grow branches out of it and flows out to the sides of my face and cheeks. My lips the only thing left to stay reasonably normal looking.

Venus claps and smiles at her masterpiece excitedly.

"Alright, one final touch" she then places a thickly weaved crown made entirely of branches on my head, "a champions crown. You, my darling, are the clear winner here. Everyone else is blind to say otherwise" she quickly glances out of the corner of her eye at the styling team.

I smile slightly at her and nod thankfully before following her out to a large room filled with twelve chariots ready to go and most of my competition ready to win. I spot Griffin at a chariot in the middle of the line up and begin the trek back there.

I pass the other tributes on my walk and they steadily watch me as I go, so I keep the same cool and confident face I held during my walk to the train in order to remain in their good graces. I look through them and can conclude who the careers are and who is most likely not going to last a minute out in the arena.

As I pass the third or fourth chariot I am momentarily distracted by a girl's wild headpiece and feel myself run into something hard. I stumble for a moment before steadying myself and noticing that the thing I ran into is actually another tribute.

"Oops. Sorry." I say to the rather attractive blond boy in a gladiator costume before me. He looks at me with a glare as if I hadn't said anything.

"Yeah you will be" he states smugly.

My eyes widen for a second before I begin to glare back at him forgetting my strategy to stay poised and graceful at all times, "Did you just threaten me?"

The boy steps closer to me, his face only inches from mine. He towers over me making me want to back away, but I hold my ground refusing to show any weakness. He smirks at my confused expression, " No, sweetheart. If I was going to threaten you I'd be more direct." He moves in a little closer and I can't hold back a shaky breath, "I'd say that I'm going to kill you."

"Cato! Come on, were about to start"

Next thing I know he's backed away and walking towards a small girl in the front of the line up yelling back in our direction. I blink rapidly trying to get the warm feeling of his breath off of me, it was intoxicating in a way. I knew nothing could possibly happen between us and he seemed to be only trying to intimidate me, but I felt like I wanted more.

After a moment I regained my composure and continued the long trek back to Griffin. I hadn't noticed Blight and Johanna on the other side of him until I reached the chariot, but apparently they had been watching me.

"What the hell was that" Blights voice immediately rang out as soon as I got there.

"What?" I ask pretending to not know what he was referring to.

He scoffed, "Don't pretend to act all dumb you're not any good at it" I roll my eyes. "What happened up there with you and Two?"

I shrugged and let out a large sigh, "I don't know, I ran into him and then he got all mad and cryptic."

Then Johanna decided to chime in with laughter, "Really? Ha, cause it looked like he was about to kiss you from back here" I blush at the mention of it, "Although I could see why, Venus actually did decent this year."

"Yeah, Donovan did okay on mine, but you look great" I hear Griffin chime in next to me. He is wearing pants that look like bark and a vest made of what resembles birds nest, but the big statement piece is the large antler looking headpiece worn atop his head. Together we look like a tree that's lost all its leaves. Separate yet together.

Suddenly we hear some music start and begin to load the chariots. Blight helps me up reminding me to hold on and look elegant just as we start to move. We make our way up and head out through a bright entryway leading to the masses of people crowded around outside. Our chariot is moving steadily and it takes me a moment to get comfortable before letting go with one of my arms to wave at the people. My face doesn't show it however. I catch sight of myself on a large screen and almost don't recognize myself. I look like royalty, poised and sophisticated. I seem to almost look down upon my other tributes, as if I am better than they. I wonder if my father and brothers can recognize me at all.

Eventually we make it to the end of the long path and stand in front of a large building looming over us. Each chariot is alternately spread through either side of the area and in front of us all comes President Snow. I try to focus on him but feel a burning sensation on the side of my face and I don't think it's coming from the flames of the district 12 chariot. It feels as if someone is watching me. I try my hardest to ignore it but as Snow finishes up his speech I turn my head to the side and make eye contact with the same tribute that was in my face earlier. He holds his gaze with mine a moment longer and then looks away as his chariot begins moving once more.

The seven chariot moves eventually as well and we are all brought back to where we started. Blight, Johanna and Opal greet us upon our return.

"You did marvelous! I've already heard from a couple of my friends that they are looking into sponsoring you Rose!" Opal joyfully screeches.

"What about Griffin?" I ask at the sight of his frown from her earlier statement.

Her smile falters only for a moment, If I wasn't paying attention I may not have even noticed it, "Well I am sure that he will have his fair share of sponsors too. You _both_ were delightful."

He grins at me and we all start to meander towards the elevator, Blight and Opal in conversation about all of the different costumes everyone was wearing. Mainly, of course, District Twelve. I walk along with Griffin and Johanna in comfortable silence until we reach the elevators. We make it in finally and I hear Griffin let out a greatful sigh.

The doors begin to close and then, "Wait!" a voice calls after us, "Hold the door!"

I stick my hand out and stop the doors from closing to let surprisingly enough the one and only Finnick Odair into the elevator with us. My stylists would have died if they saw this scene play out. The doors close and we begin the slow journey up.

"Johanna" he smirks at her, "miss me over the past year?"

She snorts, "You wish Odair"

Finnick looks back at the doors and then turns his head to look at Griffin and I, "and who is this?"

Johanna speaks for us before we can, "Finnick, this is Griffin and Rose" she looks at me and smirks, "Rose's grandmother is Sable Ashthorn"

I watch as Finnicks eyes momentarily grow wide and then he seems to calm back down, "Wow. I've heard a lot about her from Mags. She stopped mentoring before I even won my games. I've seen her games though. Yeesh! She was ruthless" He grabs at his throat and rubs it soothingly, "You gonna follow her strategy?"

I blink for a second confused. I mean I knew my grandmother won the games a long time ago, but I never thought that she was…I don't know actually a killer. Finnick made it seem like she was a merciless murderer or something.

"Uh, I wouldn't know what that'd be, I haven't seen her games. My father always forbade it."

He shrugs before the bell rings and he gets off on his floor. At the last second he turns to me, "You might want to. Word gets out that you're her grand-daughter and there might be a copycat killing. Just think about it" he then walks off like it was nothing and the doors close once again.

The elevator rises again and my stomach begins to churn. I'm not sure if it's because of the weightless feeling the elevator makes me have or the warning that Finnick gave me, or even more likely the fact that he's probably right.


	3. Chapter 3

I lie awake in my bed attempting to sleep. The noises of the city are new to me and despite how comfortable this bed is and how wonderful my shower was, it all feels very artificial and uncomfortable. Like this is just too good. It's too much.

So, I lay there rubbing the charm on my necklace trying to comfort myself, trying to think of home. All I can really think about now, though, is my grandmother. If I should watch her games. After my conversation with Finnick I haven't been able to think of anything else. I know that they have recordings of all past games here and I probably should see it, but what was so terrible about them that makes everyone flinch when they think about it and my father always refusing to let us see it.

Eventually, sleep takes over me. I don't even realize I've fallen asleep until I am woken up by Opal in the morning.

"Time to wake up," Opal calls through the door, "Breakfast is prepared, and I will have your training clothes laid out for you as soon as you eat."

I pry myself out of the comfort of my bed and make my way to the dining area where Blight is already eating. Once I sit down I begin to fill my plate much like the day before and eat most of my plate by the time Griffin comes to join us. Johanna crankily follows moments after, sitting down and holding her head in her hands.

At this point I'm starting on plate number two and Blight finally addresses the group, "Did you all sleep well?"

Johanna drops her hands and rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed by the statement.

I watch and gulp down a bit of orange juice before asking, "So, what's the plan for today?"

Blight sighs and begins to tell us our itinerary, "You two will both be down in the training center. Check out your competition and try to make an impression. A good one hopefully."

"An impression?" Griffin asks.

"Wouldn't that hurt us?" I butt in, "Wouldn't it be better to just blend so there's not a target on our backs?"

Johanna smirks, "How are you planning on getting allies if no one knows who you are?"

"I'm not"

This catches the attention of everyone. Blight particularly has a twisted and confused face, "You're not what?"

I sigh and push my food around with my fork, "I'm not planning on getting allies. I think it would be better if I work alone. I don't want to worry about someone betraying me and, like you said, it'll be harder when one of us dies. I don't want anything coming in the way of me going home."

Blight and Griffin look uncomfortable. Blight most likely because I brought up his own point to support my argument and Griffin because even though I'm not saying it directly, he knows that I'm willing to let him die if it gets me back to my family.

"Come on people move it! We mustn't sit her a dawdle the day away, this is a very important day for the both of you. Go get ready, you'll need to be in training in fifteen minutes," Opal thankfully cuts through the conversation sending Griffin and I back to our rooms.

At the end of my bed sits some clothes folded neatly and I immediately put them on and tie the front of my hair back out of my face. I look at my reflection quickly in the mirror. I am wearing a tight stretchy material, all black except for the red and grey lining across the shoulders and the number seven on the sleeve. I stand up a little taller, I want to blend, but as much as I want everyone to know I am not someone to mess with.

Griffin and I step into the elevator and head downstairs, although we are dressed the same, there is a tension now that divides us, makes us completely different. There is conflict inside of me that makes me wish he could leave the games alive with me, I know that won't be an option so it's best to just leave the tension where it is.

Stepping out of the elevator I see about ten other tributes here already. Some are talking to each other and others seem to just drift off in their minds quietly. I make my way towards the center of the room and quietly stand in line watching and listening to everyone.

There is a blonde girl talking to the boy next to her, their sleeves tell me that they are district one, careers. I look away quickly and now look at the girl from eleven whispering to her district partner. She is young, younger than everyone else here at least, and her partner is tall and muscular. Despite his tough exterior, I see how he grins sweetly down at the girl next to I'm when she says something sweet.

The elevator doors open and close a couple more times letting in more and more tributes. At one point I see the boy whom I ran into yesterday. He looks more threatening today without his gladiator costume on. I suck in a quiet breath anxiously as he joins the rest of the career pack. They all greet each other, and it has already become clear from the looks that they give him that he is their leader.

Eventually district twelve shows up and with that we can begin. A woman with a muscular build and a watchful eye stands before us, telling us how things are going to happen around here.

"In two weeks twenty-three of you will be dead. One of you will be alive. Who that is depends on how well you pay attention over the next four days, particularly to what I'm about to say. First, no fighting with the other tributes, you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. There are four compulsory exercises; the rest will be individual training. My advice is don't ignore the survival skills. Everybody wants to grab a sword, but most of you will die from natural causes. Ten percent from infection, twenty percent from dehydration. Exposure can kill as easily as a knife."

I listen carefully to what she says, but don't take my eyes off the other tributes. Only when she is finished speaking do I glance at the game makers in a small room observing us from above the training floor. I realize now that the other tributes are not the only people I should be worried about.

We split off to begin our training. Naturally the careers head for the weapons stations and many follow, but a few begin to make their way over to the survival stations. I go to the fire making station first wanting to brush up on my skills.

When I was young, maybe six or seven, the year my grandmother died, I remember her taking Ronan and I out into the woods. She brought us to an area hidden behind the brush and taught us things. She would do this every few days; when she would forget that we had already done this before. Grandma would tell us stories about a wood she once lived in all alone and taught us how to climb a tree, to pick out the right kinds of food, to make fires, to kill.

She would sit there and make us catch the squirrels that ran past. She would show us how to cook them, to eat them. She said that it was okay and to make us promise not to tell mom and dad about it. Then a couple of days would pass, and we'd do it again.

Eventually, Grandma got too sick to bring us out to the brush anymore. Me and Ronan never told our parents about it, but I wish that I had seen then that she was preparing us for this. She must have been. What other reason would she have if not to ensure we'd be prepared to survive this.

I clear my mind once I make it to the station and get down on my knees grabbing what I need. The trainer watches me and seems to want to say something, but before he gets the chance to I'm already starting to rub the dry wood together. I easily slide my hands back and forth quickly with the stick, pushing it down towards the one below that one. After a few moments I see smoke and blow on the wood watching it ignite before my eyes.

The boy at the station with me glares at my fire and starts to quicken his pace. I simply stand up and move on to the next station I see.

I switch between identifying edible plants and insects and knot tying. Both take me a moment to adjust to but then as if it's in my muscle memory I just breeze on through.

While I am focusing on each task, I am also observing my fellow tributes. In the career pack the blonde girl from one appears to be an excellent archer and her partner seems to be extraordinary at the spears. Over at the gauntlet the girl from three fell and bust her lip. The careers laughed along with her own district partner. If you weren't watching you'd think his laugh was genuine, but you can tell he is just trying to keep his place in the pack no matter what the cost. And down at the camouflage station the boy from twelve has made his arm practically invisible when put up next to the tree beside him.

Every once and a while I'll look up at the game makers. Their eyes only seem to leave us when they are writing something down. At one-point one of them makes eye contact with me an I hold it for a moment. Both of us here, but for two very different reasons. I am here to survive, and he is here to kill me. With that thought I walk off to the boxing station.

I have decided to start working on my defense in the game, because at some point it will come down to that, I am sure of it.

In line in front of me is the boy from district eleven. He looks at me for a moment before turning back to watch the fight in front of us. The girl from nine is fighting the trainer. She hits the trainer in the stomach and for a moment I think she is doing alright, until the trainer slams his fist onto the side of her face sending her back a bit and surrendering much too easily. The trainer knows this too.

Now eleven steps up onto the mat and begins fighting with the trainer. They seem evenly matched at first with the trainer striking first sending a couple jabs at his side before being hit back with a punch in the ribs. I focus in on the fight up until I hear yelling across the room.

The yelling is coming from the guy from district two and, unfortunately, he is yelling at Griffin.

"Hey where's my knife?!"

"I didn't touch your knife"

"Huh? I put my knife right there!"

"I didn't touch your knife!"

By now He is coming at Griffin in a menacing way and the guards are running up to separate them.

"Yes, you took my knife!"

"I didn't!"

"You liar! You little punk! He took _my_ knife! Hey, get off of me!"

"I'm just sitting here!"

At this point I notice that eleven and his trainer have stopped to watch the drama as well, before eleven looks up and smiles.

I follow his gaze to see his young, innocent looking district partner up on top of the ropes holding a knife and grinning down at the scene.

"I could finish you right now kid," Two says to Griffin, "Actually better yet I'll wait for the arena, you're the first one I get so watch your back"

I watch, unsure what to do, what to say. I feel like I should protect Griffin, but if I do it's just going to put a target on my back. So, I close my eyes for a moment and try to resume the training at hand.

Training is finally over. Griffin has already gone up to our floor without me and I slowly make my way over to the elevator, one of the last ones still here.

I step into the elevator alone for a moment until the guy from two steps in with me. The doors close and it is quiet for a moment. Until I ruin it.

"He didn't steal your knife"

The boy rolls his eyes and looks a me. I attempt to stay facing forward until his gaze becomes too much and I must match it.

"Well then who did?" he asks coldly.

"I saw the girl from eleven holding it," I reply, "Maybe you shouldn't threaten to kill people until you know that they've actually done something"

"Ha, like that matters," he smirks, "Everyone's going to die in that arena soon anyway, except me."

Now it's my turn to smirk, "Good luck with that"

He now glares ahead at the doors until they open, he steps out, but pauses for a moment, turning back around to hold the door open, "And who else is going to be able to win?"

"Me," I cross my arms matter-of-factly.

He raises an eyebrow, "And you are?"

"Rose"

He stares at me for a moment before letting go of the door, "I'm Cato"

Before I could get another word out, the doors close and I am elevated back up to the seventh floor. Somehow, I wish I could just stay in this elevator. It's quiet and peaceful. Every time I'm in it I seem to be putting another piece of the puzzle together, or maybe I'm losing the pieces. At this point I'm not even sure. All I know for sure is that when those doors open, things always seem to get worse.

That night I don't seem to be any better at falling asleep than the night before. I lay in my bed as long as I can stand it before getting up. I decide to get a drink from the kitchen. Maybe some of that hot chocolate in there will calm my nerves.

Before I exit my room however I hear noises outside. It sounds like crying almost, but I can't be sure from where I am.

I slowly, silently open the door and carefully look out through the small slit I have allowed myself to watch through. On the other side I see Griffin on the sofa in our living room. He appears to be shaking and every once and a while he lets out a quiet sob.

Instantly, I know that I wish I hadn't seen this. I close the door quietly and crawl back into my bed. I force my eyes shut and try to forget. Try to forget the boy on the other side of that door. How lonely and defeated he looked. He knows, and I know that he won't make it out of the games. It is because of this that I must try to block this memory out. I can't let myself, even for a moment, believe that Griffin should live, because that would mean that I let down everyone back home. That I will die.

My father would have another woman in our family to bury and my brother Jack would never forgive me for breaking my promise. Most of all I don't want to let down Ronan. We're always there for each other, best friends. I don't know how he would react to my death, I don't know what he would do. I sure don't know what I would do without him if he was here instead of me.

I allow a couple of tears to fall from my face. Then they keep coming. They fall until I'm all dried up. I have no more tears to let fall.

Now as I fall asleep I realize just how scared I am and that if others see it they will now how vulnerable I truly am, how weak I truly am. I need to be tough. I need to be like a career.

 **Alrighty, I have written another chapter and finally decided a direction for this story to go. I kind of just write whatever and hope it works. So, uh, fingers crossed.**

 **If you liked this or didn't like it, please let me know. Write a review. I feed off attention lol.**

 **I'm also going to throw out a shameless plug for my Sky High fanfic called 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' go give it a read if you want. I'm enjoying it so far, so you may enjoy it as well.**

 **Thanks!**


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